HOWELL, William

While Howell’s surname suggests that he came from Welsh stock, his parentage and the place of his birth have not been established with certainty. By the mid 1440s he was a resident of Bridgwater, inhabiting a house between the church and the bridge. He was admitted to the freedom of the borough in 1446, at a period when he may have been experiencing financial difficulties, for in the previous year he had to be excused from his contribution of 2d. to a tallage levied for the repair of the parish church, and the customary fine of 12s. for his admission to the freedom remained unpaid until 1454.3 Bridgwater Bor. Archs. 1445-68, nos. 733, 746, 757, 774.

If Howell did indeed rank among the less prosperous burgesses of Bridgwater, he nevertheless soon began to play his part in public life. He occasionally served as a tax collector within the borough, in 1448-9 he was among a group of burgesses sent to Taunton to witness the hanging of a felon, and a year later he was returned to the troubled Parliament of 1450.4 Ibid. nos. 737, 757, 774. The reasons behind his sole return are uncertain, but if his surname did indeed reflect Welsh origins it is possible that he owed his election to the influence of Richard, duke of York (who was lord of one third of the borough of Bridgwater in the right of the earldom of March): 16 months after the dissolution of the Parliament Howell was chosen portreeve of the town (an elected office charged with the collection of the lord’s rents).5 Ibid. no. 768. By this date, Howell’s circumstances had apparently improved: he traded as a draper, and leased a house and garden outside the north gate of the town from the churchwardens of St. Mary’s for an annual rent of 5s.6 Ibid. nos. 769, 772, 775, 786, 794, 798; CP40/779, rot. 455d. Howell’s commercial relationships now extended far beyond the south-west and saw him embroiled in occasional litigation with wealthy Londoners and clerks of the Westminster administration as well as local merchants.7 CPR, 1452-61, p. 74; CP40/779, rot. 455d.

In Bridgwater, Howell commanded increasing respect among his neighbours. Although he was not paid his parliamentary wages for more than two years after his return home from Westminster, he did receive a lump sum of 40s., twice the amount paid at the same time to the borough’s MPs in the 1453 Parliament (John Mauncell* and William Ward*).8 Bridgwater Bor. Archs. 1445-68, no. 774. Other townsmen frequently named him among their feoffees or called upon him to attest their deeds,9 Ibid. nos. 772, 777-83, 802, 807, 808. and he also continued to play his part in communal affairs: it was at his (evidently conveniently situated and sufficiently sizeable) house that the leading burgesses met in 1455-6 to discuss a planned blessing of their town by the prior of Taunton, while in 1457-8 (when he served as steward of the merchant guild of Bridgwater) he was paid 10s. for his expenses in riding to London on the borough’s business, and in the same year may have presented to Lord Audley the four gallons of wine which the burgesses purchased from him for this purpose.10 Ibid. nos. 793, 801; Reg. Bekynton, no. 1076. The precise date of Howell’s death has not been discovered, but he is last heard of in the autumn of 1459, and perhaps died not long after.11 Howell must be distinguished from two contemporary namesakes. The more prominent of these was an influential Bristol merchant who held town office in that port on a number of occasions between the 1440s and the 1460s. The other was a Welsh weaver at Bridgwater first heard of more than a decade after the MP’s disappearance from the records.